Port project causing concerns

Comment

By STEPHENIE JACOBSON

Cheboygan Daily Tribune - Cheboygan, MI

By STEPHENIE JACOBSON

Posted Oct. 1, 2013 at 12:01 AM

By STEPHENIE JACOBSON

Posted Oct. 1, 2013 at 12:01 AM

I have concerns about the proposed port project in the city of Cheboygan. You should too. The lack of transparency and the fact that private investors have passed should be a good indicator that we should pay attention. Now the city has committed your tax dollars for clerical services to the private, nonprofit Cheboygan Economic Development Group so the city (and not the people with the idea) can engage in "land assembly, infrastructure development, dredging, and related costs" for the project. Councilman Mike VanFleet nailed in when he said "if this is such a great idea why aren't entrepreneurs jumping on this" and "the last entity I want developing or assembling anything is government". Bravo councilman! Good ideas don't need government money to succeed. Despite the professional brochures we know very little about this project. Other than a few presentations and articles informing us that the "movers and shakers" have met and are very excited, most of the development has been behind closed doors. In an July 30 letter to the editor W. James Chamberlain (port proponent and member of the CEDG) wrote "a now local resident who wishes to remain anonymous has smoothed the way for them to contact the Detroit Port Authority and State of Michigan officials to develop the port". I'm not so sure a secret meeting arranged by an anonymous citizen with a Port Authority from one of the most corrupt (and bankrupt) cities in America is a good thing. Ask yourself, is this how representative government is supposed to work? Anonymous citizens arranging private meetings that you only find out about in letters to the editor is not exactly my idea of government transparency. What's more, many of the key players have ties to the Michigan Strategic Fund, a giant slush fund for politicians to dole out corporate welfare. The tea party has been very concerned about the formation of a Port Authority. An authority is a group of unelected people who are given powers normally only given to elected officials. Port Authorities have the power to condemn land and can ask the body that formed them (the city) to levy assessments on the port district. We have hosted the Port of Cheboygan group to our meetings. They stated they are not going to be a port authority, but their literature said they are. As late as June 2013 (a year after they visited our group) their website said at the bottom (in tiny letters) that they were a "future port authority" (quickly changed once pointed out). The Northeast Michigan Council of Governments is pushing for a regional port authority, removing even more control from local officials. Proponents of the project say they want to form a Port Commission to run the port. Is a port commission an authority under another name? What powers would this commission have? Who decides who is on it? Are these folks qualified to run a port operation and who steps up when these folks grow tired of the project? Remember Cheboygan Memorial Hospital was run by a board of caring citizens who often had little experience running that type of operation. They took a lot of taxpayer money that contributed to their demise. In my view, unelected alliances, councils, and associations hanging around government are one of the biggest threats we face to liberty and prosperity. They are people who want to spend your tax dollars without bothering to get elected. They are often given broad powers with little oversight. The CEDG is no exception. A visit to their website shows that most of their projects (major city park, port of Cheboygan, the Great Up North Initiative) involve tax dollars. In the case of the "sense of place" grant they pushed, tax dollars were awarded to one of their board member's companies. I understand the desire to give back to a community, but it is best done privately. Public-private partnerships are nothing other than government taking our hard earned money and giving it to those that they deem worthy ("worthiness" typically decided by lobbying, backroom deals, or campaign donations). In my view, now is not the time for the city to become an investor and developer in a port. They have trouble paying for what they already have (like the Opera House). I would like to see government take less from everyone. Then the people who want this port could spend their own money to make it a reality.